Why is it that my pets have fleas now that the weather is getting cold? They haven’t had fleas all summer.

You aren’t the only one! Many other pet owners have discovered the same thing as you. For some reason, temperature and humidity was not right this summer in many parts of the United States until the last month or so.

Certainly, the summer’s weather was not typical!

So magically, now that the weather is turning colder, and the moisture (rain and snow) is continuing to flow, the fleas have decided they better work hard and get in the house if they are going to have a good winter. So for many people who have not had fleas on any of their animals all summer long, all of a sudden fleas have gone crazy. Pets are covered in fleas! And fleas are in the house. Because we are keeping our houses warmer and drier than the outside, fleas are comfortable and breeding away in our furniture and our pets’ bedding.

And our pets are scratching!

Regardless of how you fight fleas, with diatomaceous earth, or pharmaceuticals, the trick to getting rid of the fleas now is sticking with it. Once the fleas are in the house, because we keep our temperatures around 70°, fleas are happiest – hatching a new batch every 2-3 weeks. So even though chemicals say they last a month, most products fail 2 to 3 weeks after application due to overwhelming environmental load. Which means for many pet owners, trying to prevent flea infestations in their homes, the chemicals will have to be reapplied sooner. This brings about health concerns that must be offset with the health issue imposed by fleas. For those using more natural flea control methods, the products will need to be applied quite frequently, often every couple of days. Regardless of how you kill fleas, stick with it,
making sure your last flea preventative is given after the first hard frost, and you will keep these nasty critters from making your home theirs this winter.

Dr. Cathy Alinovi DVM

As a practicing veterinarian, Dr. Cathy treated 80% of what walked in the door — not with expensive prescriptions — but with adequate nutrition. Now retired from private practice, her commitment to pets hasn’t waned and she looks forward to impacting many more pet parents through her books, research, speaking and consulting work. Learn more at drcathyvet.com

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Comment9

Laura
Nov 07, 2014

I’d just like to link anyone who’s reading this and has more questions about safe flea prevention/treatment to tinytimmy.org. I’m not affiliated with the site or anything, I just think it’s just a huge fountain of resources for dealing with fleas without chemicals and keeping your pets safer in the process.

I’ve read that story a few times, actually, and after corresponding with the webmaster for a while I eventually bought a bar of her soap and she included a picture of Timmy, which is now on my wall <3 He's such a handsome baby.

Please don’t suggest that reapplying or readministering pharmaceutical flea treatments earlier than labelled is acceptable. Especially with systemic medications, readministering early can lead to an overdose as these products stay in the system for the time that coincides with their recommended dosing timeline. Other than treating the environment, staying on a chosen product for several months in a row is key in order to break the flea life cycle. (Eggs already in the environment will continue to hatch out even while pets are treated. As each female flea can lay up to 50 eggs a day, it can take some time to overcome these numbers.) Also it’s important to treat all host animals in the home.

The standard use of Revolution (against fleas, heartworm, ear mites) is an application once a month. When used to treat, instead of prevent sarcoptic mange, the same amount of medication is applied once every two weeks. So no, people shouldn’t on their own dose their pets however they feel like; however, there may be times under a ver’s guidance and supervision, to apply more frequently. At least this is what I’m going through.

I would gladly try an alternative remedy for fleas, if I thought that it would work. We once tried diatomaceous earth, and what a disaster that was. We put on the cats; it was a mess, and it didn’t work. And I have a lung problem as well.
Read the tinytimmy‘s article. Sounds good. I have never heard of Capstar, that is mentioned.
The lightbulb & pan of soapy water trick netted us ONE flea. Bathing the cats is something we haven’t done yet, and sounds like fun.

And yes, we do all that is recommended in the article and feed Brewer’s yeast, which fleas are supposed to hate.

Fortunately, fleas don’t like our environment: acid soil, redwoods, and no pasture land. That’s not to say that they are non-existent, so we treat our cats only if there’s an outbreak, and sometimes only ONCE every few years. That’s only ONCE – not monthly. For our lightweight cats only half the drops. I know folks elsewhere are plagued with them, so am not giving advice. And we don’t have carpets.

BUT in our area, northern CA, we have Ear Chiggers, even tho they are supposed to be mainly in the south. These critters are nasty and tenacious, but also supposed to die off in the winter, BUT they seem to be quite happy on the cats and in a warm house. We are treating them. No details.

Neither of my cats can tolerate any of the chemicals used to battle fleas. So I comb them 2 or 3 times a day with a flea comb and put any fleas in an airtight container with a few mothballs inside. This keeps the flea problem well under control.